Monday, June 21, 2010

Flotilla Cover-up by the New York Times for Israel

The alternative media is working diligently to locate evidence that the New York Times willfully aided Israel’s cover-up of information about their flotilla attack.

Prima facie evidence of the paper’s distortion and suppression of facts is so abundant we believe top management must have been involved.

The Times’ complicity ranged from journalistic failure to follow leads that might (and did) contradict Israel’s version of the massacre, to serving as an unabashed conduit for Israeli propaganda. The Times persisted in publishing and republishing the official line of Israel and became a virtual bulletin board for crackpot opinions and commentary that called the humanitarian flotilla “an act of aggression” that threatened the survival of the nation of Israel.

Bloggers like Philip Weiss (Mondoweiss), FAIR, and yours truly (USMediaAndIsrael.com) provide examples of the Times’ stonewalling and disinformation. James North on Mondoweiss, for example, writes about the aftermath of Israel’s illegal detainment of hundreds of peace activists and their video evidence. As Israel began releasing the prisoners, the Times‘ legion of reporters failed to interview a single flotilla member to get their version of the atrocity. As North wrote, this unconscionable delay gave “Israel’s version of the deadly raid time to harden.”

When the Times finally did report something not fed to them by Israel, their front page story lamented the public relations catastrophe for Israel, not the murder of nine peace activists nor the immense suffering caused by the illegal siege of Gaza.

The NY Times has a long history of pro-Israel reporting of events in the Middle East. One notable illustration is their coverage of Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty that killed and wounded over 200 American sailors. The Times‘ only account of this deliberate, hour-long assault — a brief summary buried on page 19 of the paper.

The question is who within the New York Times ordered the most recent journalistic stonewalling and kowtowing to Israeli interests. Might it be publisher/owner Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.? Rank-and-file employees and journalists at the Times must be truly embarrassed, even shamed by the actions and inactions of their employer.

We of the alternative media ask someone to come forward.

Source

1 comment:

  1. The "reporting" seems too well-coordinated to be simply sloppy journalism.

    The attached cartoon and its backstory tells it all. "NY TImes censors political cartoon"

    ReplyDelete